That put Temple first in the Gorilla Prize category out of the 20 Pennsylvania schools participating in this year’s RecycleMania competition.

Nationally, Temple ranked 28th out of 178 schools in the Gorilla Prize category, which recognizes the school that collects the highest gross tonnage of material regardless of campus population.

Out of 42 competing states, Pennsylvania had the most participating schools, with five in the Philadelphia area alone.

Senior Facilities Specialist H. Marshall Budin attributed Temple’s high recycling rate to the deliberate actions of thousands of people in the Temple community to choose resource conservation over consumption and disposal.

The Recycling Office, in collaboration with student members of Students for Environmental Action, organized several outreach activities including the clearly marked Recycling Dumpster placed at the entrance to Founder’s Garden, instructional door hangers designed for the residence halls, and artwork incorporating the RecycleMania logo and an iconic cartoon character to promote the competition.

While this year’s competition has just come to a close, Budin already has his sights set for next year.

He plans to hold a friendly competition between residence halls, and to save time and space with the installation of a trash compactor to be used for paper and cardboard in Johnson and Hardwick Halls.

“RecycleMania works by focusing attention on our consumption and waste disposal habits,” he said.

“By restating the recycling message in the context of college living, we move recycling to a higher order of action.”